Politics
North Korea cleans up traces of Kim Jong Un after meeting with Putin
After Kim Jong Un’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, North Korean staff were seen meticulously wiping down everything the leader had touched — a move analysts say is part of strict security protocols designed to thwart foreign espionage.
Even with the appearance of a budding friendship between Kim and Putin, footage showed the reclusive state’s extraordinary measures to conceal any clues about Kim’s health.
In a post on Telegram, Kremlin reporter Alexander Yunashev shared video of Kim’s two staff members carefully cleaning the room in the Chinese capital where Kim and Putin had met for more than two hours.
The chair’s backrest and armrests were scrubbed and a coffee table next to Kim’s chair was also cleaned. Kim’s drinking glass was also removed.
“After the negotiations were over, the staff accompanying the head of the DPRK carefully destroyed all traces of Kim’s presence,” the reporter said, referring to North Korea.
After talks in the room, Kim and Putin left for a tea meeting and bid a warm farewell to each other.
Such measures are standard protocol since the era of Kim’s predecessor, his father Kim Jong Il, said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert with the US-based Stimson Centre.
“The special toilet and the requisite garbage bags of detritus, waste and cigarette butts are so that a foreign intelligence agency, even a friendly one, does not acquire a sample and test it,” Madden said.
“It would provide insight into any medical conditions affecting Kim Jong Un. This can include hair and skin tags,” he said.
In 2019, after a Hanoi summit with US President Donald Trump, Kim’s guards were spotted blocking the floor of his hotel room to clean the room for hours, and taking out items, including a bed mattress.
Kim’s team has been spotted cleaning items before he uses them as well.
During his 2018 meeting with then South Korean President Moon Jae-in, North Korean security guards sprayed a chair and a desk with sanitiser and wiped them down before Kim came to sit.
Before he sat at another summit with Putin in 2023, his security team wiped his chair down with disinfectant and vigorously checked to make sure the chair was safe, with one of the guards using a metal detector to scan the seat, video footage showed.
A helicopter crashed on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, killing five people, the civil aviation authority said on Thursday, while local media reported that the aircraft was on a medical rescue mission.
Those killed were identified as a guide and a doctor — both Tanzanians — the Zimbabwean pilot and two tourists from the Czech Republic, the Tanzania National Parks said in a statement.
The helicopter crashed near the mountain’s Barafu Camp on Wednesday, Tanzania’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
The Mwananchi newspaper and East Africa TV, citing Kilimanjaro region’s head of police, reported that the helicopter was on a medical rescue mission.
Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, is nearly 6,000 metres (20,000 ft) above sea level.
The crash happened between 4,670 and 4,700 metres, Mwananchi reported.
Around 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually.
DUBAI: Preparations for the highly anticipated New Year’s Eve celebration in Dubai are in full swing, with plans for an extraordinary display to mark the arrival of 2026.
The spotlight will once again fall on the iconic Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, where preparations for an awe-inspiring fireworks show are already underway.
In a sign of the scale of the event, Dubai Mall is also getting ready to dazzle with a spectacular light display, set to complement the grand fireworks at the Burj Khalifa.
Mohammed Al Abbar, the Emirati businessman whose construction company built the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and the iconic Dubai Mall, is personally supervising the preparations for this year’s New Year’s Eve celebration.
Al Abbar shared a behind-the-scenes video on the social media platform X, offering a glimpse into the monumental efforts underway ahead of the grand event.
Syria will start swapping old banknotes for new ones from January 1, 2026, Central Bank Governor Abdelkader Husrieh said on Thursday, under a plan to replace Assad-era notes to try to strengthen the currency’s value.
Syria’s new government, led by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, is seeking to rebuild state institutions and revive the economy after more than a decade of war, sanctions and financial isolation that left the local currency severely weakened.
“The central bank has been given authority to decide the deadline for the swap and its locations,” Husrieh said, adding the bank would issue instructions.
Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in August that the country will issue new banknotes, removing two zeros from its currency to try to restore public confidence in the severely devalued pound.
Some bankers have voiced fears that the new currency could drive up inflation and further erode the purchasing power of Syrians reeling from high prices, but Husrieh said the operation will take place through a smooth and orderly swap.
He added that a press conference will be held on December 27 to “explain all the details of the replacement process and deadlines”.
Assad fled Syria in December 2024 for Russia after rebels seized Damascus following an eight-day blitz through the country, ending six decades of his family’s autocratic rule, more than 13 years after an uprising had spiralled into civil war.
Syria marked earlier this month the first anniversary of the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad with jubilant celebrations in major cities.
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